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Forum:Battle Rock motto
The topic of conversation has come up two or three times now, about possibly adopting a motto for the Stronghold. This could be used in a number of ways, primarily in the context of a battle standard, but also potentially in the context of our marketing materials. Some good examples of this would include the illumination preprints I made for the youth illumination activity at our Championship tournament, or for commemorative or prize scrolls to be given out at public events such as the kid's heraldry contest and squire's tourney, which were events put on for public participation. A battle standard is a very long streaming heraldic flag used to mark a rally point for the group's fighters when they go to battle. It is a headquarters flag, in contrast to the personal banner which denotes the bearer's presence, and it can be placed in our camp at wars as well as our own events, or where we hold our fighter practice, or anywhere else we want to gather our troops. For a group of our stature, an appropriate size would be about a meter tall by about 3 meters long, tapered to a single rounded tail. Displayed upon the standard are (from hoist to fly): the heraldic badge of the kingdom (a demi-sun of green upon a field of gold); the heraldic badge of the palatine barony (a silver dolphin naiant through a golden annulet, optionally upon a field of red); and our own badge (we do not have our own badge, but I think we could use the red phoenix upon the golden sun against a field of blue). Our own heraldic bearings should be accompanied by transverse bands bearing our motto, slogan, or war cry (if we have one), and the whole flag is trimmed in alternating bands of the livery colors. These are the primary color and the primary metal of our arms, so I would interpret those to be blue (the first color mentioned in our blazon) and gold. There are two other colors in our arms, however, and I think the case could be made for red and gold as our livery colors. My first question, then, is do we want to adopt a motto? If so, what motto? We could use a Latin phrase, as was often done in period, or we could use an English translation of some motto, or we could simply use a Latinization of our very name. Options I see here include the following: *Ad astra per aspera (To the stars through toil) *Auxilio ab alto (By help from on high) *Fortes Fortuna juvat (Fortune favors the brave) *Cave ne ante ullas catapultas ambules (If I were you, I wouldn't walk in front of any catapults) *De novo (Anew) :fits with the phoenix theme *Deus vult! (God wills it!) :a popular medieval Latin motto *Dum spiramus tuebimur (While we breathe, we shall defend) *Esto perpetua (Let it be forever) *Fluctuat nec mergitur (It is tossed by the waves but it does not sink) :my personal favorite *Silica Pugna (Battle Rock) :Latinization of "Battle Rock" Please feel free to add your own suggestions as well! I have to say, I am personally leaning toward FLVCTVAT NEC MERGITVR (It is tossed by the waves but does not sink), which also happens to be the ancient motto of the city of Paris, because I think it fits Battle Rock exceptionally well. I would love to get everyone else's thoughts on the matter though, because it certainly is not for me to decide. I hope everyone who reads this page will leave some comment regarding their thoughts on this question (and please remember to indicate who you are in your reply). My other question, as raised earlier, is which colors should be counted as our livery colors? We have blue, green, red and gold to choose from. The livery colors are defined as the primary color (azure, vert or gules in this case) and the primary metal (Or being the only choice here). Our field and our primary charge (the phoenix) are both colors. The first color listed in the blazon, and the one that arguably fills the most space on the shield of arms, is azure (blue), yet the primary charge, and arguably the most visible color is gules (red). Knowing what I know of heraldic blazoning and the order of precedence in writing a blazon, the first color mentioned in the blazon (that being the first color of the field) is given some deference, just as the so-called ordinaries, being always regarded first after the field, are given deference among charges. My thought is that the first color mentioned in the blazon is mentioned first because it carries the most visual importance among the colors on the shield (at least in the mind of the medieval herald), and this is intended to be given more weight than the color of a mere mobile charge. Therefore, I would interpret the livery colors to be azure and Or (blue and gold). Does anyone else care to weigh in on this issue? Wilhelm Meis (Quatsch!) 05:28, April 3, 2010 (UTC) Discussion Please sign in and leave your comments here. Use the 'edit' button to the right. Thank you for your feedback!